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Rethink free tuition, university head urges

Daniel Sanderson

July 25 2017, 12:01am, The Times

Craig Mahoney said that many poor pupils were intimidated by university

Free tuition fees have not helped students from deprived backgrounds to enter higher education, the head of the university with Scotland’s highest proportion of undergraduates from poor areas has said.

Craig Mahoney, principal and vice-chancellor of the University of the West of Scotland, said that charging students for tuition would have some benefits and called for a national debate on a new funding model.

He expressed concern that education policy was being devised on the basis of politicians’ personal experiences from decades ago.

Universities in Scotland have made only slow progress in attracting more students from deprived areas. Professor Mahoney said that the cap on student numbers would have to be raised if the Scottish government was to make access to university fairer, and urged…